If you’re a woman who is over fifty, you’ve probably heard all the old standard fashion advice for ‘mature’ women. Wear turtlenecks, they cover up wrinkled necks. Wear your skirts below your knee, it’s more age appropriate. You’re too old to wear long hair, it ages you.

The list goes on. Well, that list is antiquated. Throw it out. Today’s 50-plus woman doesn’t have to give up her sense of style just because she had another birthday. Here are some suggestions to help you dress to make you look and feel good about yourself.

Be Confident in Yourself

Wear your confidence like a designer gown. You’ve lived enough life that you are knowledgeable, experienced and can believe in your own self worth. You’ve earned the right to trust your own taste and judgment. If it feels right to you, it probably is. Don’t let anyone dictate what your personal style must be simply because you’ve passed a mile marker.

Often, you are told to avoid trends, and that may be right sometimes, just as women of all ages should be selective about the fashion trends they choose to follow. That doesn’t mean you can’t indulge in certain ones that appeal to you and suit your particular body type. Being over fifty doesn’t mean you know longer love to look stylish and up to date. Trust in your instincts.

Know Your Flaws

Yes, your body has changed over the years. Your arms may not be as firm as they once were and the girls may not be quite as perky as they used to be. Maybe your rear has spread some or your tummy is no longer concave. So, yes, you may have to change your fashion strategies a bit. That doesn’t mean you are suddenly sentenced to live the rest of your life in drab, baggy clothes with no style at all. It just means

you need to think about ways to disguise the problem areas and flatter the rest of your body. If you are uncomfortable with saggy upper arms, then either don’t wear sleeveless garments or add a shrug or jacket. If you are bothered by widening hips, accent the top half of your body with shirts or sweaters with rich color, v-necks or vertical stripes and de-emphasize the lower half with solid, dark colors. A-line skirts and wide-legged trousers also help minimize a bulky bottom.

Invest in Well-Fitting Undergarments

Gravity does take its toll on our bodies no matter how hard we fight it. The best way to help control the g-factor is with undergarments that fit correctly and do their job properly. Indulge yourself and go have a bra fitted by a professional. You’ll be amazed at what a difference a quality bra that fits correctly can make in your figure. It is a well known fact that most women don’t buy the right bra for their body. It’s more important now than ever to change that.

The same goes with panties. Panty lines are unattractive on anyone, no matter what their age. If your butt or tummy is a little flabby, don’t wear tight bikini panties that cut in and emphasizes that fact. People may make fun of granny panties, but a well-fitting pair of briefs is a good option for many people. If you’re over fifty, don’t fall victim to out of date fashion dictates for mature women. Your love for fashion is still alive. Indulge it.

You can’t always trust fashion advice, so be careful when considering the source. Here’s why:

1) You think “It looks good on the mannequin. I’ll buy it!”

But, just because it looks good on the mannequin doesn’t mean it’s a winner for you. The retailers are enticing you to buy, by dressing up the mannequin, BUT you probably don’t look like that mannequin! Not many of us do. We have to take into account our own body type, coloring, face shape, facial features skin and hair qualities.

2) “My friend thinks it looks good on me.”

If she can see beyond her own style, coloring and body type, she may be right. Otherwise she could just be imposing her tastes and preferences onto you. Or maybe even unconsciously cloning you into a copy of herself. This is a hard one because, if you can’t see it for yourself, you’ll probably be tempted to follow her blindly. After all, she always looks great, doesn’t she? But you need an objective eye for this. If your own eyes aren’t objective and you don’t know for sure if your friend’s eyes are either, you might want to consider working with a professional who’s been trained to see objectively.

3) “It’s in the fashion magazines.” Fashion magazines have two big limitations. They are:

a) Too generic. They can’t possibly cover all of the variables that make up your unique style or look. General guidelines can be somewhat helpful, but they don’t go far enough. Compare that to understanding exactly why something looks great on you, or not.

b)Too limited. They can only show what’s going to be available for that season which has been dictated by the designers. The designers don’t’ know YOU. They’re just playing out their own fantasies and preferences that don’t have anything to do with you. Well, unless you happen to get lucky on occasion!

Sometimes, it all feels too complicated. You may be tempted to just play it safe. So you stick with basics. You don’t know how to accessorize, so you don’t. But playing it safe often translates into boring.

On the other hand, you may throw caution to the winds and buy your clothes on the whim of the moment. You choose a passing fad, a trend that may be on its way out, a cute little something that doesn’t go with anything else in your closet. But, when you do that, too often you end up with a mishmash in your closet and never know what to wear.

Either way you never feel great in your clothes, and that’s a problem!

What to do?

1) Take the time to understand your style, your personal coloring, and your body type.

2) Learn what works best on you, and don’t buy anything unless you know it’s right.

3) If you feel overwhelmed at the thought of taking on that task and don’t feel you can do it successfully, consider getting professional help. Advice from an expert can keep you on the right track, stop you from making mistakes, and save you money in the long run.

Staying on top of the fashion express is not an easy task at all. Ask a fashionista and you will know exactly how much work goes into looking oh-so-perfect at all times. At the core of being a fashionista is the ability to follow and even anticipate fashion trends before they hit the retail market.

Even in this most creative industry, technology has a great role to play. Using fashion apps, a fashion fiend can enjoy having the world at her fingertips. Here is the low down on a few apps that are most useful for fashionistas.

Vogue Stylist

If there is one name that is eponymous with fashion, it is Vogue and with the free Vogue Stylist smartphone application, the fashion fan can get hold of all the gen on the season’s fashions and read what the editors of Vogue are saying about the various trends of the season. This app will also give the user product suggestions based on the weather of his or her location. Even better, you can shop for the clothes and products that you see on your mobile device.

The Find

Looking for a bargain is made so much easier with the help of this application. The Find will help you scan a barcode and research the product. It can show you comparable and comparative products and even locate stores close to your current location. Probably one of the best features of this application is that it does not have advertisements to clutter up the space.

CAbi or Carol Anderson By Invitation offers a fabulous shopping experience. From the comfort of your home, you can experience the luxury of having a personal shopping assistant who helps you plan what you can wear and what you can buy. Personalization at its best – that’s what the CAbi experience offers you.

Rue La La

This is a private website but totally worth the membership. Looking for upmarket brands is a breeze with the help of this application. The number of big names who use this application to sell their products is staggering.

This application is also available across many devices such as Blackberry, iPhone and Android devices. With this application, one can access online boutiques which are open for a very short time. But during this time, the big name creations are available for a significantly lower amount.

ModiFace

Now – make up simply has to be the coup de grace for any fashionista and with the application called ModiFace, you can enjoy a veritable cornucopia of apps that will give you a chance to experiment with hairstyles, cosmetics, colours and so on to find out what suits your face the best. Totally worth the time you spend on this application!

Since most fashion app developers only concentrate on IOS I wanted to share some good Fashion Apps that are made for the Android Platform. These days there are mobile apps for pretty much everything, including Fashion. So if you are looking for style inspiration or some free apps that can actually help you with your daily fashion decisions please read on.

Here are a few new and older apps for Android that you should try:

#1 Instagram

Still one of the best fashion apps around there. Simply follow some of the stylish people on the web and you get the latest trends every day. The coolest fashion kids, from all over the World cannot get enough. And neither can I.

Android Download Link:(free)

play.Google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.Instagram.android

#2 Pick My Style:

A new app on the market but it immediately got a loyal following. Basically Pick My Style can help you with your fashion decisions.

Not sure what to wear tonight? Simply upload a picture to the App and let the community decide. its very popular in South East Asia and is getting more users from all over the world by the day:

Android Download Link: (free)

What I personally like most about this app is the compare two styles feature. Simply upload two different looks and let the User decide what’s best.

Mary S says:

“Sweet Outfit App Helps with outfit decisions and gives new ideas which clothes to combine.”

#3 Wear App

Wear is a nice fashion app from Japan that’s available on Android. It doesn’t seem to be for the average User as most people are uploading extremely stylish images.

It currently has over 1 million users and is one of the most popular fashion apps out there.

Android Download Link: (free)

play.Google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.starttoday.android.wear

4 #Pose

Want advice on exactly how to wear autumn’s favourite shade, pink? Or some new inspiration for your office look tomorrow? This app lets you follow bloggers and celebrities and all kinds of stylish people from all around the world in one place. Hundreds of new styling ideas every day.

Android Download Link: (free)

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pose

I hope you enjoy these free mobile Apps. I know that it is very hard to find some decent Fashion Apps for Android since most developers think that all fashion minded people only use iPhones! Which is nonsense.